Don't forget that the US DVDs are in NTSC (which runs at a simulated 24 frames per second) whereas we will be getting ours in PAL (which runs at 25 frames per second).

So if a show was 25 minutes 30 seconds on an NTSC release it would be approximately 24 minutes 29 seconds long on a PAL release.

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I knew someone would say this sooner or later!

Sorry dude, but you're wrong ;-) What you're thinking of applies solely to material that was acquired at 24fps, such as film. The Muppet Show was shot on videotape at 50 fields per second (25fps). There will be no difference in running time between the original PAL tapes and the NTSC conversions done for the US.

Sorry dude, but you're wrong ;-) What you're thinking of applies solely to material that was acquired at 24fps, such as film. The Muppet Show was shot on videotape at 50 fields per second (25fps). There will be no difference in running time between the original PAL tapes and the NTSC conversions done for the US.

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Oh - okay!

Well hopefully someone here will buy the set when it comes out and let us all know for certain what the situation is! I kinda got screwed on the purchase of my Region 1 set so at the moment I still don't actually have a copy - so I'm going to hold-off until I know for certain which is the better set to pick up!

All the running times quoted above are approximately 20 seconds shorter than they should be. 20 seconds is the difference in running time between the Season 1 titles and the Season 2 titles. At this point, my money's on the shows being uncut but with replacement opening titles.

By definition, a PAL release will be of superior quality to an NTSC one since the show was shot in PAL. Standards-conversions are invariably worse than the original format. By the same token, the copy of 'Sex & Violence' in the US set will be better than the PAL conversion, since this show was taped in NTSC.